DP World’s London Gateway has been recognised for its outstanding commitment to the environment at a prestigious awards ceremony celebrating the best of the international maritime community.
The team behind the developing deep-sea container terminal and one of Europe’s largest logistics parks on the Thames estuary in Essex were awarded the Environmental Protection prize in the Lloyd’s List Global Awards ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel in London on September 29.
London Gateway’s Chief Executive, Simon Moore, said that the award was recognition of the outstanding hard work that has been put into the environmental management programme at London Gateway. He said: ”We are truly leading the way here at London Gateway and I am very proud that this has been recognised in making us winners of a global industry award.”
Marcus Pearson, Environment Manager for London Gateway, said: “We believe that the Environmental Management System set up at London Gateway is world-class and it is great that this has now been recognised by the industry. It’s a fantastic award for DP World to win.”
The London Gateway development is in an area designated as being of international environmental importance. As a result, DP World’s work is underpinned by its Site Environmental Policy, which focuses on preserving the marine environment and protection against impacts from construction of the new London Gateway port as well as managing and protecting all terrestrial wildlife on the massive site.
Marcus added: “This is the most sophisticated environmental programme of its type in the world. We constantly need to manage and mitigate the potential impacts of dredging 30 million m2 of material from the Thames Estuary and North Sea. Thanks to a network of real-time monitoring buoys along the course of the dredge channel, information is always being supplied to marine experts who have direct links to the dredge masters.
“Should there be an issue, works can be immediately halted or precautionary steps taken to ensure stringent water quality thresholds are not exceeded.”
Other works carried out to protect the environment at London Gateway include the creation of the new Stanford Wharf Nature Reserve, which is 30 times the size of Trafalgar Square. The reserve provides feeding areas for thousands of birds flying south for the winter. New habitats have also been created for snakes, newts, lizards and water voles, with over 200,000 animals having been relocated to enable the construction of London Gateway – the largest trans-location of animals ever in the UK.
